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A review by jemmacrosland
The Lost Girls by Kate Hamer
3.0
The Lost Girls is a sequel to The Girl in the Red Coat, where an 8-year-old child is kidnapped from a storytelling festival as she is believed to have been given healing abilities from God. The Lost Girls centres on the adjustment to life for both Carmel and Beth, after she has been found and returned to her family. I was so excited to read about the aftermath of this colossal event and to see what had changed for this family.
One thing that is important to note is that The Lost Girls takes place when Carmel is 21, but she was returned home at the age of thirteen. I feel as though the storyline has skipped ahead too far and has missed out on the crucial years between 13 and 21. I would have liked their fresh perspectives from straight after the event, rather than another 8 years down the line and I think these missing years were detrimental to the plot.
Similar to the first book, I really enjoyed the depth of Beth's character as a mother and gaining her outlook. In both books, but more so TLG, we don't see how this impacts Carmel's dad very much at all, as the plot is more focused on the mother-daughter relationship and how the kidnapping affected the dynamics of trust and communication.
I grew to really liking Mercy and was interested by her backstory with her parents and finding community and support in the church. As I mentioned before, this book is very content-heavy with religion and this is not something that I am accustomed to or have much interest in, but I don't think it detracts too much from the thrilling story.
Whilst I did think that some of the loose ends from The Girl in the Red Coat were resolved in this book, I was still left with a lot of unanswered questions, surrounding for instance the kidnapping or even Dorothy and her 2 girls. It didn't have the satisfying conclusion that I was hoping for, especially in regards to the pastor. The Lost Girls was a good attempt at carrying on the plot of The Girl in the Red Coat but I don't personally think it was strong enough to be a successful ending to the story.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5
Thank you to NetGalley, Faber and Faber Ltd and the author Kate Hamer for this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
One thing that is important to note is that The Lost Girls takes place when Carmel is 21, but she was returned home at the age of thirteen. I feel as though the storyline has skipped ahead too far and has missed out on the crucial years between 13 and 21. I would have liked their fresh perspectives from straight after the event, rather than another 8 years down the line and I think these missing years were detrimental to the plot.
Similar to the first book, I really enjoyed the depth of Beth's character as a mother and gaining her outlook. In both books, but more so TLG, we don't see how this impacts Carmel's dad very much at all, as the plot is more focused on the mother-daughter relationship and how the kidnapping affected the dynamics of trust and communication.
I grew to really liking Mercy and was interested by her backstory with her parents and finding community and support in the church. As I mentioned before, this book is very content-heavy with religion and this is not something that I am accustomed to or have much interest in, but I don't think it detracts too much from the thrilling story.
Whilst I did think that some of the loose ends from The Girl in the Red Coat were resolved in this book, I was still left with a lot of unanswered questions, surrounding for instance the kidnapping or even Dorothy and her 2 girls. It didn't have the satisfying conclusion that I was hoping for, especially in regards to the pastor. The Lost Girls was a good attempt at carrying on the plot of The Girl in the Red Coat but I don't personally think it was strong enough to be a successful ending to the story.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5
Thank you to NetGalley, Faber and Faber Ltd and the author Kate Hamer for this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.